"...not as vocabulary, not as syntax, not even as structure, but as a principle and a presence." -John Berger

Welcome Friends, Seekers, Artists, Seers, Howlers

Monday, April 10, 2006

Czeslaw Milosz: Provinces

MUSIC

Wailing of a flute, a little drum. A small wedding cortege accompanies a coupleGoing past clay houses on the street of a village.In the dress of the bride much white satin.How many pennies put away to sew it, once in a lifetime. The dress of the groom black, festively stiff. The flute tells something to the hills, parched, the colour of deer. Hens scratch in dry mounds of manure.

I have not seen it, I summoned it listening to music. The instruments play for themselves, in their own eternity.Lips glow, agile fingers work, so short a time.Soon afterwards the pageant sinks into the earth. But the sound endures, autonomous, triumphant, For ever visited by, each time returning, The warm touch of cheeks, interiors of houses, And particular human livesOf which the chronicles make no mention.

ABODE

The grass between the tombs is intensely green. From steep slopes a view onto the bay, Onto islands and cities below. The sunset Grows garish, slowly fades. At duskLight prancing creatures. A doe and a fawn Are here, as every evening, to eat flowers Which people brought for their beloved dead.

2 comments:

Eva, I would like to buy you Anna's book, Talking to My Body. Or make you copies. I don't have it but will buy it. She reminds so much of you. Her force, uncertainty, yet knowingness, and how there are no excess words in her work. The title also I like and makes me think of you.